Of Witches and Beasts
by SophiaCrutchfeild
Summary: The untold tale of how Adelaide the Witch of the Woods, her sister Auntie Whispers, Enoch of Pottsfield, the Queen of Cloud Kingdom, and THE BEAST evolved from Addie and Whisper Ramos, the teen genius Enoch, the innocent little Sunshine Emerson, and the ringleader of the gang of young teens, Asher Emerson. Beware, for in this story, there are no happy endings for the once-innocent.
1. Prologue: A Path You Shouldn't Take

Author's Note: First Over the Garden Wall fanfiction! Hope you like it, and don't decide it's terrible and should be burned!

"I can't believe you got us lost… no, scratch that, I can completely believe that, Adelaide Ramos. You are _always_ doing things like this!" I shouted at my best friend.

"You should talk!" she shouted back, tossing her long dark hair. "Anyway, _I _never get lost, it's you lot who are always getting us turned around!"

"Addie, you were the one who said you had a place to show us," Whisper said, crossing her arms and shooting her twin sister a pointed glare.

"Okay, okay, everyone just calm down," my younger sister Sunshine tried to mollify us. She was always the mediator of the group. "It's no one's fault, and if we keep arguing we're never going to make it out of these woods."

"I agree," Addie said.

"Of course you agree, it's _your fault!" _I exclaimed.

"No, your sister is right. We need to keep our heads on straight," Enoch said with an air of finality. "We aren't going to survive the night in these woods otherwise."

Okay, so I should probably give a quick explanation. My name is Asher Emerson… or it was. I don't know if it is anymore, but for simplicities sake, let's just say it is. My best friend Adelaide Ramos had told me and the rest of our friends that she had something really cool that we had to see, and taken us over a wall in a graveyard, and when we tried to cross the river on this shabby raft, the currents pulled us off course, and landed us here, in these woods. Not fun.

"Okay," Enoch said. Enoch usually came up with the plans for our little group. He was good at it too. "So, Asher, you still got that lantern?"

"Yeah," I say. "I managed to hold on to it, but the flame's out."

Enoch shrugged, and held out his hand. I tentatively handed him the lantern. He smiled. "It's a miracle. There's still some oil left. Whisper, you have matches, right?"

Whisper rolled her eyes, but unzipped her jacket pocket and pulled out a slightly damp pack of matches. "Can you even light damp matches?" she asked Enoch.

"Yeah, just a sec, I have a flashlight," he told her. He then did something or other, I wasn't really paying attention, with the flashlight, and the match lit. He lit the lantern with a smile, and handed it back to me.

"Nice," Sunshine complimented him.

"Thanks," he flashed his teeth at her.

"Okay, break up the love-fest, her brother, aka ME, is standing right here," I cut in awkwardly, causing them both to blush and protest that they had no interest in each other. Yeah, sure.

"What now?" I asked Enoch.

"Well, look down."

We all looked down. Whisper was the first to put it together. "It's a path, isn't it?"

"If not, then it's a very inconvenient natural occurrence," I say. "Paths usually lead to civilization, don't they?"

"I think so," Addie shrugged. "What would be the point of a path that lead to nothing?"

So we followed the path.

Now, before you start reading the story rest of our story, you should know three things:

One- we were all kids, in high school except for Sunshine, who was in the eighth grade.

Two- we shouldn't have followed that path

Three- this isn't a story with a happy ending


	2. Chapter 1: The Unknown

Author's Note: Sorry for taking so long to write this. I got a bit caught up in some other things. Ready yourself for some darkness…

I held out the lantern in front of us as we walked down the path. We were all exhausted after two hours walking, and no end in sight.

"Damn it," Addie complained as she fell, skinning her knee. "Are you sure we aren't going in circles?"

"Pretty sure, yes," I sighed.

"Y'all look like you could use a hand," a voice came from behind us.

We all turned, basically in unison, to see an old man, smirking at us.

"We could," Enoch admitted. "Do you know the fastest way out of these woods?"

The old man sighed, and with a flick of his wrist, the path we were on lit up, glowing blue. "I'll give you a hint. The likelihood of any of you ever leaving the woods, much less all of you, is close to none. The path you're on has leaded you to… well, a place few return from. People don't leave here-"

"Yeah, yeah, we get the point. You won't help us," I snapped.

"Asher…" Sunshine started.

"What? He's…" then I suddenly realized something I'd been too tired to see before. The path was glowing… and we were in the middle of the woods… "What the…?"

"I _don't think we should mess with this guy!"_ Sunshine hissed.

"I don't mind," the old man gave us an amused look. "It a natural reaction to finding out you're never going home."

I couldn't help myself. I have a very low tolerance for being told what I can and can't do, and this? This was crossing a line. I smacked the jackass across the face and began shouting at him. I can't even remember what I said… something about how he didn't know shit about us, and I was going to tan his hide… or something. The next thing I knew, my head felt like it was about to blow up, and I was on the ground, and it just _hurt so much_, and I…

Then it was over, and the man was just laughing at me. I got up, and raised a fist. I wasn't going to back down just because of a bit of pain. I was sixteen, and strong, and I thought I could take this freak down. At least I could make him leave us alone, if not help us. The man raised one eyebrow, and the laughter subsided into quiet amusement. I pulled back my fist…

"Don't," Addie said, grabbing my hand. "Asher, this is not a smart move."

I lowered my fist. Even I could see that. "Who are you?" I asked the man.

"Finally, you ask the right question," the man laughed at me again. "I am The Unknown."

"Great," Addie groaned softly. I gave her a look that said, _hypocrite._ "What? I didn't _punch_ him."

"She has a point," the Unknown agreed. I glared at him.

"Look, why did you offer help if you aren't giving us any?" I asked, trying very hard not to start throwing fists again. The pain wasn't a great experience. Could I get up from it? Yes, if pride was involved. Did I want more? Um, no. I've never been a masochist. This guy was just pissing me off so much that I didn't really care about the pain.

"I didn't offer help. I observed that you looked like you could use it," the Unknown spoke lightly. Okay, now Addie looked as ready for a fight as I did, and Whisper's hands were noticeably curled.

Yeah, I get that this is monotonous. I'm just telling it like it is… was. It's not a fun story, I know. Also: I was an idiot.

"Can you leave us be, then?" Sunshine asked, looking upset. "Your presence in this environment seems to have a negative effect on all parties. Why have you come to mess with us?"

"I like messing with people," the Unknown shrugged. "I'll go… but I'll _always_ be watching. This isn't the last time we will meet."

With that, he turned around and disappeared in a flash.

"That didn't just happen." Enoch was in shock. He had been, I realized, since the path lit up. "This whole thing must be a dream. It's the only rational explanation."

"Nah, man, whatever he did to me hurt too bad to be a dream," I said. "Maybe we're on hallucinogens or something…"

"We're not," Whisper said simply. "That was real. This whole thing is real."

Addie gave her sister a long look. "That's… Whisper, that can't be what this is…"

"You _know_ what this is Addie. We both know. That was no man," Whisper tugged at the ends of her grayish-black braids, one of the few physical differences between her and Addie, who had dark brown curls that tumbled freely down her back… so I looked at Addie's hair sometimes, okay? What's the problem? She was hot, okay?

"What do you mean?" Sunshine enquired.

Whisper stared at us, and tears began to flood her eyes. "I mean we're not in the world we know anymore."

"Shut up!" Addie cried angrily. "You don't know what you're talking about!"

"Addie," I started.

"It's crazy! You're all crazy! It's can't be true! She was put in a psychiatric ward for a reason!" Addie continued screaming at her sister. "It's not true!"

She fell to her knees and began sobbing furiously. Enoch, Sunshine, and I all kind of stared at the twins. Man, fifteen-year-old girls are _weird._

"I got this," I muttered to Enoch, and he and Sunshine backed off. I sat down next to Addie, and awkwardly tried to put an arm around her. "Hey."

She looked up, tears staining her cheeks. "What is it?"

"Um…" I tried to think what to say. "I'm sorry for blaming you earlier. I mean you couldn't have known what would happen."

"I don't care about that," she said. "I just… if Whisper's right…"

"About what?"

The others had backed off, giving us some privacy. Addie stared into my grey-blue eyes with her almost black ones.

"I just… I don't want us to be dying right now."


	3. Chapter 2: The Town

Author's Note: I had no idea what to do with this story for a while, but I've finally figured some things out. Warning: This has some heavy gore coming. After this chapter, things go bad quickly, and… well, you know what happens to these kids, and it's not pretty.

I held Addie tightly, and she spilled the story.

She and Whisper were seven when their aunt Emmeline nearly drowned in the river. When she was revived, she told everyone about an incredible forest, filled with magic. She wouldn't believe it was a dream, insisting that everything was really there, just over the garden wall in the graveyard, waiting for her to come back.

Of course, only her nieces believed her, and Addie stopped eventually, accepting that her beloved aunt was a crackpot. Whisper, on the other hand, never stopped visiting Emmeline, talking to her for hours on end…

"If we're in Aunt Emmeline's forest, then that means that we're probably also at the bottom of the river, like she was. It's my fault. We might be dying, and it's my fault!" Addie sobbed into my shoulder. I let her cry into my leather jacket for a few minutes, before Whisper came marching up to us angrily.

"What did you say to my sister?" she growled at me.

"What? No! I-"

Addie wiped her tears, and glowered up at her twin. "He didn't say anything. I'm freaking out because we're dying. I would think you might be more worried about that!"

"As long as we keep fighting our way through the forest, we'll be fine," Enoch cut in, grinning. "I hope you don't mind that I overheard. I came back to say that I saw smoke overhead. That means a town, right? If this _is_ the death forest, which seems highly improbable but not impossible, then there might be people who never made it back. The town could, of course, be a trap, but if this is actually just a normal forest, and we were somehow drugged by that crazy old man (which is far more likely), then most likely someone in that town has a phone or car, and we can get home."

Enoch has a tendency to explain everything to everyone. He thinks that just because he's scary-smart, the rest of us are idiots. Well… he did the last time I saw him, at least. He's… alive? I guess… I don't know, undead maybe?

He would be able to explain it better than I can. Anyway.

"Okay, if everyone else is here, where the hell is Sunshine?" I asked.

Enoch gave me a deadpan look. "You do _not_ trust her, do you? I asked her to scout ahead. She's only a few months younger than I am, you know."

"You're a freshman, Enoch. I don't trust you all that much either," I told him offhandedly, as I got up and began marching up the path toward the smoke rising from behind the trees.

"Good to know," he muttered sarcastically from behind me.

Sunshine was only a little ways ahead, and I caught up to her quickly. Then I kind of yelled at both my sister and her paramour.

"WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF A DAMN FOREST! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU TWO? WE CAN'T LET ONE PERSON GO OFF ALONE OR WE COULD END UP BEING PERMANANTLY SEPARATED!"

They kind of went from glaring to embarrassment to regret pretty quickly. I won't apologize for that. Say what you will about me, but I am the reason we didn't get separated… then, anyway. Eventually, shit happened, but…

We reached the town. It was pretty weird; I'll give you that. I had seen places like this in movies, the kind that Sunshine loved, with kings, and princesses, and knights, and other total bull. You can probably picture it. Thing is, we didn't see any driveways, cars, or even paved roads. No electrical wires, or people either. It was… well, creepy.

"I… I think this supports Whisper's theory, about this being a dead place," I mentioned as we strolled through the streets. There's stillness about the place that felt unnatural. It's like when, in a movie, suddenly everything is silent, and you _know_ something is coming, but then the tension builds, and…

"Yeah. I agree," Enoch whispered. We can all hear him though.

"A dead place?" Sunshine asked. "What exactly did I miss?"

Whisper explained as quickly as she could, while I glanced inside one of the houses.

"Hey, guys, there's nobody here, but there's some food and stuff," I told my friends.

I mean, we'd been stomping through a freakish forest all day, after getting capsized on a raft. Hell, yes, we were hungry, okay? I didn't know what was going to happen when we grabbed some food from off a table.

Enoch took a bite out of a big, red apple, and grinned.

"Dead or not, this stuff is good," he laughed, tossing Sunshine a pear. She grinned, and took a bite herself. I grabbed… was it an orange? I can't remember. It was some sort of fruit, anyway. I remember that it tasted better than anything I'd ever had before, though.

We stuffed as much food as we could carry into our pockets, and left the house, grinning.

We were a little ways away when the gilt caught up with my angelic little sister.

"We need to at least leave a thank-you note," she insisted, turning back.

I shrugged, because why the hell not? I thought we were on a lucky streak, so why not give Sunshine that moral satisfaction?

Addie and Whisper decided to go back with her, after I shot them a look, and Enoch and I sat down on a fallen tree.

"I really do trust you, you know," I mentioned. "I was just seriously worried. I don't know what's real anymore, and since that dick did… whatever, to me, I've been worrying about what else is in this forest. I don't want someone, especially my sister, to wander off alone and not come back. You guys might be killed, or tortured like what that guy did to me, or…"

Enoch punched me in the arm. "Dude. You're sixteen. You're not our dad. Look, if you're that worried about everything, then I can help out. I swear, I'll do whatever it takes to protect Sunshine."

I took a long look at this guy. He was one of my closest friends, and he was the one I could always count on. Yeah, he was kind of big headed, but he always did what he said he'd do. I honestly couldn't have chosen a guy I trusted more to be with my little sister.

"Yeah, okay," I nodded, letting a half smile slide across my face. "Thanks."

Enoch shrugged, and blasted me with one of his huge grins. "Any time."

"Save a few of those smiles for my sister," I rolled my eyes, and he laughed.

That's when Addie came running up, a look of sheer terror on her face.

"Skeletons!" she shrieked. "The town was full of _living skeletons_, and they have Sunshine and Whisper!"


	4. Chapter 3: Transformations

Author's Note: In this chapter, there is lots of bloody stuff happening. If decapitation or body horror disturbs you, then tread lightly.

We jumped up from the log, and I grabbed Addie's shoulders. "What are you talking about? Addie, tell me _everything, right now!"_

"I don't know how it happened, but we walked into the room, and there were walking skeletons waiting for us! I… They grabbed Sunshine and Whisper, and I ran to get you guys, and I don't know what's going on, Asher, please, tell me this can't be happening!"

I shook my head. "Whatever it is, it's happening. Come on, Enoch, we've got to save them."

He nodded, and we ran back to the town.

Sure enough, living skeletons were walking about, grinning their terrifying grins. Whisper and Sunshine were restrained, tied up to a post, a ring of jack-o'-lanterns surrounding them.

A tall skeleton suddenly shouted. "ATTENTION! THE SENTENCING IS ABOUT TO BEGIN!"

The skeletons laughed, and began to circle around Whisper and Sunshine, leering at them.

"Please…" Sunshine whispered, tears streaming down her face. "We didn't know… please don't kill us…"

The tall skeleton cackled, cruelly. "You think you can glean sympathy? You, who stole from us, and was then so foolish as, to come back to the crime scene?"

Sunshine stared up at the skeleton, and I clenched my fists.

"If he makes one move to hurt her…" I heard Enoch mutter. "I'll crush his damn bones into dust."

The skeletons watched with anticipation, waiting for the sentence to be laid out.

"These living's will face their punishment. For their crimes, the sentence is: death, by beheading." The tall skeleton was handed a sword, and he swung back-

"NO!"

Enoch and I shouted in unison, running to the center… but Enoch made it there first, jumping in the sword's path…

I will remember what happened after that forever.

Time seemed to slow as the sword continued it's journey, cutting through the air, and hitting his neck, and his head fell to the ground as the blade only just cut my sister's cheek. For a moment there was silence, as Addie, Whisper, and I stared in horror, and tears streamed down Sunshine's face.

Then, my sister screamed, and in a burst of light, the ropes around her and Whisper snapped. She fell to her knees, crying over Enoch's body.

"No… please, no…"

That was when Enoch's hand moved. Even the skeletons gasped in shock as his hand wiped the blood from my sister's cheek, and then curled into a fist.

He got up, and started towards the tall skeleton, who stepped back.

"I… that's not… that's not supposed to…"

Enoch lifted a jack-o'-lantern from the ground, and placed it over his neck. Then he turned to me.

"Asher, mind holding this freak down while I destroy him?" he asked.

"Got it," I said, grabbing the bones of his arms. Enoch broke every bone in his body. Twice. Then, he began grinding the bits of bone into nothing.

He turned to the terrified skeletons, which hadn't done anything since we showed up, for some reason; I still never figured out why… anyway, he began yelling. I don't know how that worked either.

"_I_ am in charge now! If any of you lay a hand on any of my friends- if you so much as _look_ at Sunshine- Asher and I will do the _exact same thing to you_. I'm relatively sure that I'm officially dead now, and so I have exactly _nothing to lose_ aside from them."

Sunshine walked up, and wrapped her arms around him.

I sent a glare around the circle, and hissed, "_Leave."_ They scattered, and left the five of us standing there.

"We're never getting out of these woods, are we?" Enoch asked quietly. "We really are dead."

"No… no, we can't… you're still here, we still have a shot, and I'm sure that if this is some kind of in-between world, everything will go back to normal when we get out, right?" Addie tried to reason desperately.

I looked down at the lantern. It had somehow stayed lit since that creepy old guy tortured me. I hadn't really noticed before.

"No," I muttered. "We're not going home…"

That was when my head erupted in pain. It almost felt worse than whatever the Unknown did… almost. I fell to my knees, clutching my skull, and that was when I felt the branches for the first time.

Finally, the pain let up, and everyone was staring, horrified. I felt the branches again. They came out about six inches from my head, and had no leaves, but they were definitely branches. Addie was the first to help me up.

"What are those?" she asked, sounding interested, concerned, and sort of… I don't know. I could never read Addie completely.

"Um… branches. I think."

Whisper smacked me suddenly. "You idiot! What did you _do_ Asher?"

"I…"

"Do you realize that you can't go home anymore? You're part of the damn forest!"

That's how my transformation began.


End file.
